WHOA That's Good Podcast - John Luke Robertson on The Power of Love

Episode Date: October 31, 2018

Sadie Robertson wraps season 1 of her podcast with a special visit from her brother John Luke Robertson. He shares the best piece of advice he has ever received and how the power of love and his thirst for learning has impacted his life.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What up, what up today is going to be an awesome episode. It is actually the last one of this first season. And guys, I can't even tell you how much fun I've had on this podcast. And I hope y'all are loving hearing all the advice from all of these amazing people. Today though, to close it out, we have a very, very special guest. He is my brother, my older brother, John Luke Robertson. He is seriously one of a kind.

One of the greatest humans that I know. He has a purest heart. He's so wise. He literally got me through high school. Praise the Lord. Bless him and his sweetheart. And he is just amazing. So we're gonna get to hear his advice

and I'm pretty excited to hear what he's gonna bring. Hey fam, Johnlik, God, this is what happens when you have your brother on the piecass. Johnlik, we don't allow fart noises on this piecass. This is very serious. This is very serious, okay? I'm just kidding. Everybody, if you can't tell for the first 18 seconds that this podcast is gonna be the

best one ever, because my brother, John Luke, is on. Welcome, Johnny. So this is a fun thing for me to get to ask John Luke, because as you know, this is the end of this season, so you'll know the podcast well enough to know that the only question we ask is what's the best piece of advice that you've been given. Now the funny thing about this with John Luke is John Luke is my older brother, so he's given me a lot of advice. Actually John Luke has given me so much advice. If it wasn't for him, I do not know that I would have made it through high school. Is that not the true story, John Luke? That is true story. Still don't know how she made it.

We all don't know by the grace of God. But anyways, John, I do want to know of all the wisdom that you've obtained over the 22 years of your life. What is the best piece of advice that you've ever been given? I think the best piece of advice I've ever been giving, given, I don't know where this came from, but it's always been a thought that someone that sometimes told me, but it said, they said, sometimes you have to create the world that you want to live in.

Oh, that is good. I think that applies to a lot of more advice that I've been given about your friends, how you become your friends. But you also become the environment that you live in. Yeah, that's true. And so, and I take that and I think about that in a sense of like my house and my schedule and my habit. And like if I want the world to be bright and clean and orderly, I have to live

in such a way that's bright and clean and orderly. And so I think about that a lot and it applies to almost every area of my life. No, that's really cool. I think that's something about you that I think is really cool that I want you to share with them is how much you read and how much advice you do take from others. You've always had the spirit of a learner and a researcher and you've always put the things that you've, the advice you've been given into play.

And I want you to tell some of your stories, like reading different books and actually applying it to your life like the 20 minutes of sleep and the walking with no shoes and stuff like that. And just some of the stories because I think it's cool that you don't just hear advice and you're like, oh it's good advice you hear it and you implement in your life. And then you might not stick with that forever, but you certainly do learn from it. Oh yeah, I think, well I think a lot of people, you hear advice, you hear like sayings and you think, oh wow, it's a good saying.

But it never actually like touches your life. I guess no bearing on your life. And so at one point I thought, what if we just actually took the advice that people said, you know, like, what if we actually like went to bed early or work up early or, you know, all these things that people say to do and you just never think of the one and Some of them have turned out to be not so good advice, but That's bad the one I

Read this book and it was saying how if you only sleep 20 minutes every four hours then You you can only sleep four hours a day versus eight hours a day. So I was like, oh wow, that's so much more time, because then you can never have to really go to sleep. You can stay up all night. I was like, I have all night to then watch TV, read books, and whatever. And so I was like, I'm gonna do it. So I set my alarms every four hours I suffer 20 minutes. First couple days pretty bad. Then I'm in a straight-up zombie. Oh yeah the first show and then I was like oh I am totally

like doing this. At night I would read so many books and watch so I mean like so many series and then we worked out because that's in much time. And then like, like not gonna lie, though like 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. stretch was pretty lonely. Oh my God. I think everyone in the whole world is asleep. Yeah, but if everyone did this, then everyone, you know, we would have so much time. Which guys back to do the thing.

Do the thing that you want everyone. Yeah, like how do you want the world to be created? How do you want the world to be created? Because if everyone did it, then you wouldn't have to stop parties later. You could see the party can just never stop. So maybe you should move to New York. Well, that's what I'm saying.

Because like normally like you're like, oh, it's like midnight, it's time to go. Midnight, everyone sleeps between minutes. You watch another movie. How hilarious if the world actually lived like that. And you're like, hey, hold on, not die. And everybody was on the same naps schedule. Everyone took a nap.

Exactly. Well, it was working, but it's not very convenient if no one else is doing it. So like, it's true. Like, Mary Kate would say, like, we would go to lunch and at 12 o' o'clock like after sleep for 20 minutes. I can't just go in Well, then in I'm curious is your actual schedule of real life exactly So it appears with everyone else's schedule. Oh, and that was I think the downfall. Yeah It was lunch one time that I Make it was like just come in like don't I was like I'm gonna sleep in the car

She's like come in so I did not skip my nap. Or exhausted. Well, that's like staying up an extra hour. Yeah. That's funny. Then, I skipped another nap and another nap. And then, then it was basically, I didn't sleep for two days.

So, my guess, skipping naps. So, now, I started hallucinating. Which is a, well, that's bad. Yeah. Sometimes, well, that's good. Can turn into well, that's bad. Yeah, sometimes, well that's good, can turn into well that's bad. It'd take it to too far the extreme. Exactly, then I fell asleep and slept for like 16 hours. Oh my gosh.

No, I'm fine. But the good thing about that is still, if I need to go to sleep, I can still fall asleep in like one minute. Because you learned it from that time. See, that's cool. That is well, that's good. It will take it back to well that's good because you actually learned it from that time. See, that's cool. That is what that's good. We'll take it back to what that's good,

because you actually learned a lot from it. And then I'm a other favorite. One of you is whenever you read the book about running barefoot everywhere. Which I bet your feet are tougher because of that. I did that for a while. Running barefoot was a book called Born to Run. And it was about these people that run.

If you run barefoot, it's way better for your feet. And shoes are so bad for your feet. And I watched that. I read this documentary about Nike. And they literally knew that shoes, the shoes they were creating are bad for your feet. And they still did it. Nike!

Because they were the first ones who came out with what about Adidas? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know about Adidas. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. No, okay, so what I love about this is what we're talking about. You take what you've been given and then you actually

apply it to your life. You take this advice and that you do it because you want to create a culture around you of the good things that you've learned. And so I think it's cool because it says about the word that it's activity and it's a lot of the word of God. And so how have you seen this and just reading the Bible and actually implementing the things of Jesus like into your life that you read?

Because I see you cultivate every place that you go as an environment that Jesus dwells in and stuff. But I've also known you to be one who's read the Bible. You know it, so you do it. So have you seen this in your life with the word of God, or says you have, but you're born to run and these kind of things. Oh, absolutely. Because I mean, you read the Bible and there's really not very many things that Jesus told us to do.

Like they're pretty simple things. Like take care of orphans or widows. Forgive. Don't be angry. Like don't let the sun go out on your anger. Like there's only one another. Love one another. There's only like a few things.

It's not like it's a big, complicated rule book. you know, we're not in Leviticus anymore. So we, and so like, especially like with like anger, is like a hardly ever get angry, and it's simply because like, I just forgive, because that's what it says to do. It's like, why would I dwell? Like the advice is don't go to sleep when you're angry, like resolve conflict when it happens. So I do that every single time. And, excuse me. So I do that every single time.

And like there's hardly anyone that can think of them, like we still have an issue. Yeah, you do. I can actually look at your life as the man noticed actually in the past few weeks that you have peace with everyone. Like, you really, truly do. And that's like beautiful, but that's because you forgive, you love well, you honor, you love sacrificial, which is what Jesus says to do. And that's what he showed.

And I think that's beautiful. And you more than most anybody I know, and to say this about my brother, this is really cool because I've seen you live your life. And you take on that. And I think people listening, maybe they're like, oh, does he really not good? Angry. And I can say he really does it because you really do just believe. And I heard somebody actually Eric, who's

our security guard on tour, he said today, he goes, you know, Jesus said to love one another and he said, you know, like that's what we're supposed to do. And he was talking about his wife as an example. And he said, my wife, that's the relationship on earth, that's like the closest relationship to me. And so like every single day, whether I like her or not, I will love her and I will love her well because that's what Jesus said to do. And I think that you have to see it like that. If it's what Jesus said to do, then you just do it no matter what. There's no buts, but the world's doing this, but this person did this to me. But no, you just do because that's what he said to do. And I love that. I've seen that all over your life.

The other thing I've seen you do, and I wanna hit on, is that you put yourself in situations and in places to learn and grow. Like you're not afraid of face planning and you're not afraid of things that maybe you're outside of your comfort zone. And I've seen that especially with the show. And so you wanna talk a little bit about that

about how to just like do the things that might make you feel uncomfortable, but you do it because God's called you to. Well, I think that really goes into like failure and what my view of failure is and what other people of view of failure is. And a lot of advice you hear from people who are older or dying, they almost always say from what I've read. Like they don't regret the things that they did, they regret things they didn't do.

And most people I think are afraid of failure because they've just never experienced it. But like I've taken advice that says like Bob Goff said, if you want more faith, do more stuff. And like I did that. And it was when I stepped out in what I thought was faith or in faith was one of the most was one of the most embarrassing biggest failures in my life, but I'm still here. I mean, like, I'm still fine, and I definitely have more faith in God because I'm like, I'm still here, and I think that's the thing about like,

face playing and on stage, like I usually try to do something different every night. Yeah. And two nights ago, I think, um, did not work at all, like even remotely, And I was like, okay, that one didn't work. But I'm like, I might as well try, because you never know. And like, and then, and I think that's the thing too, is like, I failed. But then I'm still doing the show tonight.

Yeah. And a lot of people I think are scared of following the advice or failing because they've never done it in the first place and then made it through. And then sometimes I think in my life too, I failed and then you think like, oh I can never do it again or like it's over and sometimes it just takes time. But like at this point I got failed so much in so many different areas of my life. I'm like, I'll try it. Yeah, I'm so so much in so many different areas of my life. I'm like, I'm gonna try it. Yeah, like I'm so

Going true and I think that's such a good point. Generally like I love that you shared that because I do think that a lot of people Have the fear of failure and because a lot of times they don't see the failure from the people on stage But you only see a 30 minutes of their life, you know, you don't know how many times a face planted to get them in a position Where they can actually stand up right, you know, and don't know how many times they face planted to get them in a position where they can actually stand up right, you know? And I think that that's happened in my life, I'm the one that's dying, seven years. And I always tell people they say,

like, how do you have so much freedom and confidence in seven? I'm like, honestly, because I finally just gave my failure to God and said, use it all. Like, use it all. If I face plant, I face plant, use it. Then show people how you are much stronger than me and much better. And like I think when you just allow God to do that,

then that happens and I've seen that in your life. And that's really, really, really cool. The other thing is I love how you mentioned Bob. And Bob started this season off the first podcast and Bob like literally pours out advice. Like he literally just pours it out. And I know you went to Uganda with Bob and talk about that because that was another thing

about you putting yourself in a position or you're like going by yourself to like you go on to a Bob golf. But like just what that did for your life because I know that that was huge. Oh well, that actually just remind me of where I heard the advice in the first place. So when I went to Uganda with Bob,

that was after I read the book, a thousand miles in a million years by Donald Miller. Oh, no way. And so that book, the whole, the whole like a summary of that book is he says, live the life, basically like live a good story, like live a life that you want to tell someone about living. Yeah, that's cool. And so I read that book and I was like, oh, I'm in. So then when Bob asked me to go to Uganda, I was like, yes, I'm in. Because that was a story.

It's a good story. Yeah, that's cool. And that's a story that I wanted to live. That is so cool. Okay, I love that. And Donald Miller is. How does he connect it to Bob Goff? They're like, I love that and Donald Miller is how is he connected to Bob Goff? They're like, I don't know, they're like best friends kind of like and they're both amazing amazing men

And if you've never read either of their books go read their books They actually invited our family to go to Canada years and years ago And it was such a significant time and our family's life would just say yes to something that was outside of our comfort zone and because of that I know that our family's been so blessed from it and it's changed our idea and perspective of just going after things that seemed super, super bizarre. But anyways, this advice was amazing. I hope everybody is encouraged by this and the last thing I want to ask you is something that I love how you answer. I've heard you get asked this question and I love how you answer it. It's the question that everybody says about how did you American do it? I got married so young and you know how everybody was like this is like crazy to get

married at 18 like it's not gonna work and I've heard you answer this question as to how or why. And so I would love for you to share it with it because I think that it's so much truth. Yeah I think well I think getting married at 18 is crazy that's what I think we're 19. Oh my gosh. Oh my god. That was another thing about advice that we had heard. We talked to people who had been married when they were four Marikates parents were married when they were 39 and 32. My parents were married when they were 18 and 19. We've heard every end of the spectrum being married late, being married early in your 30s, however it is, and none of them said the reason that they either made it or didn't make it was because of the age they got married It doesn't matter. It's good. Not even the remote sense the only thing that matters

To keep your mirrors together is if you folk if you put your marriage on Something other than yourself. Mm-hmm, and so we put our marriage on God And again, that was the advice that we were given And so we put our marriage on God, and that was the advice that we were given. And so we made this covenant that is outside of ourselves. Our promise is not to each other, our promise is to God. And so there's nothing that we can do to break that.

To break that. To break that or separate that. That's so good. That's gonna be healing for some marriages, I believe it because the anime can come in at so many different angles and say, well, it's because you got mirrored young or because you got married, or y'all are so different.

But if you put your marriage or if you any relationship, this goes for anybody out there, a friendship, a dating relationship, a marriage. If you put your relationship on something other than yourself like God, there's a selfless kind of love that comes with that And you can actually follow what God says to do, which is to love one another and Jealous like that was awesome. You really are a well wisdom And if you go to Jealous in an American's house, you see books just literally everywhere

Like not even a bookshelf, but it's become a bookshelf. And he just like surrounds himself with this culture of learning and with wisdom and with advice and all of these things. And so if you're sitting there and you're like, man, I wish I knew all of these things. I wish I had advice to give. I just wanna encourage you, one, you do. You have a story to tell,

but two, if you feel like you don't then go create the place for you, go create that space. Surround yourself with books, immerse yourself with mentors and people who are further in so much smarter than you go to crazy places and maybe that's just down the street and love on your neighbor. Just start to create the story that you want to live and we hope you've been so encouraged by Will that's good this season. I've been encouraged by all the advice we've been given. John, thank you again.

given it. John Lle, thank you again. All right, y'all, you know what time it is. Time to call mama. So we're going to call mama with our best piece of advice and our worst piece of advice. Let's see what she has to say. Hey, mama. Literally just got done talking to John Luke and he brought the fire. Seriously, that boy is awesome. Okay, are you ready? Give us a lot of good advice, obviously.

I mean, no shock there. But are you ready for the blow? That's good, well that's bad taste. I'm ready, let's do it. Okay, I'm loving this piece of advice. Follow your heart but take your brain with you. Oh, that is good. That is a good one because sometimes, yeah,

I always say a brain, your brain is a really powerful thing and sometimes you can let your brain go and you just like go along with whatever your heart's saying, but you need to bring your brain with you because you need to be thinking Hey, I'm gonna let you use me as an example I'm just gonna say a time or two. I have followed the heart and left the brain at home. I said good See you later Tell me to relationships that I'm saying you do that. Yes

Yeah to your relationships that I'm saying you do that. Yes. Yeah, yeah. It happens, hey, make sure when you walk out the door and into your date, you have your brain on hand, okay? It's very important. V, or town, say. That's a really good one. Yes. Okay, yeah, learning. Take a note from my failures that definitely have your brain.

Okay, so I wanted to bring up piece of advice you gave me when I was in the eighth grade, and it was one of the best piece of advice is that I can remember in our relationship. Okay, basically, remember that girl was like bullying man's goal of so me, and then you just said, well, stop listening to her.

And I was like, what? Mom, what kind of advice is that she's talking to me? And you're like, don't stand there. Like tell her not to say it. And I was like, Mom, I can't do it. And I said, what do you even mean? I was like, it was so foreign to me. Like the concept that I didn't actually have to listen to her.

Like I was like, it was like the craziest mind blowing a bias. And you said, next time she comes up to you ask her Is this what you're about to say to me? Is it going to be good or is it going to be negative and I was like mom that was gonna be so awkward. You were like okay, well then you're just gonna keep hearing it So the next day I remember I got this girl she comes up to me and I said wait I said is this about to be good? It's gonna be negative and she said well, I said is this about to be good? Or is this gonna be negative? And she said, well, it's bad, but it's about you. So you need to know.

And I said, no, I actually don't need to know. If it's bad, I don't need to know. And I think that that was the perfect where let's go, where that's bad scenario. That's like actually, you don't have to listen. You don't even have to listen to the bad of us. Not only do you not have to agree with it and follow it, but You don't even have to listen to the Vat of us. Not only do you not have to agree with it and follow it, but you don't even have to listen to it.

Like literally put the hand up, talk to the hand, and walk away. And that, I know it's funny because it seems simple. Like when you said it, like just don't listen. Like it seems simple, but to me it was such a big deal because that didn't seem like an option and I just think that people need to know that that is an option and that was a huge turning point for me. Well good I'm so glad to remember that I remember that moment too and I do

remember it being really important and I think we do have to like take responsibility like we can control our relationships like we do we let people know how they can treat us or how they cannot treat us. And someone that's not treating us respectfully, someone's not bringing positivity into our lives. And you have the right to just say, nope, sorry, no, thank you, thanks, but no thanks. Like I don't need that in my life.

And it is, it's a way of actually, I think, respecting yourself, loving yourself and when you when you speak up for yourself and say no I'm not gonna I don't need that in my life and I'm not gonna allow you to put that into me. So true. Every right to do that. So true. I remember that happened and I was very proud of you for doing it. Oh thanks mama. It's proud of you. Thank you. Well and, Mama. It's proud of you. Thank you. Well, and I will say this just going right into a bad piece of advice is that if it's about

you, even if it's bad, you need to hear it. I think that that's bad advice. I don't think that you do. I think that if it's going to be bad and you need to hear it, it needs to be from your mom, your dad, or somebody who is in your life that you really trust and value the wisdom that they have, because very easily that can be really dangerous. If somebody's speaking negative things that people say about you, that's not true.

And you begin to believe that that's who you are. It can really, really, really do a number on you. It can cause a lot of damage and cause an insecurity. It can cause you to believe things that aren't true and really put a limit to the things that you can do. But if you're, if you just say, you know what? No, I actually don't need to hear it. I'm actually not going to get involved with the gossip. I'm going to just continue to ask God who I am or ask my parents who I am and get those reminders because even the other

day, I would just be transparent because I think this is important when there was a situation that my friends were all talking about and I actually, I could tell that they were a little bit upset that I was like, yeah, they upset with me or they upset with the situation. I can't tell so remember I called you and I like explained to you the situation. I'm like, do you see anything in here that I did that could have potentially led to them? Thinking that I was meaning to do something negative or get up give off something that was divisive and You were able to listen through it and bring clarity to me on where things might have gone wrong I think I was really important because I'm literally living my life. I didn't think two thoughts about it But I wasn't looking at it from the perspective that they might have been looking at it

from, and so ask your mom, ask him into it, ask somebody so they can look at you and they can say, you're not wrong, you are not wrong, but I see where it went wrong, and here's maybe how you can speak truth and life into it. So they don't hurt who you are as a person, they don't bring it down, they don't make it a bad thing or give you false hope or no hope,

they actually just say, here's how you can make it better. And I think that that's so, so, so important. That's so good. And I think that like, it is important. Like you said, to hear it from somebody that loves you, that really knows you, because like, that is one thing. When someone's coming to you, it's like that. For one, they're probably coming to you because they're wanting to be divisive.

They're probably, you know, it's probably not coming from good intentions. It's like, oh, hey, I want to help this situation. It's coming from a place like gossip or like, I want to create more division or I want you to know that someone doesn't like you just because I want it to hurt you. So like, probably their intentions are not really pure in that situation. But also, like like if they're coming to you and like oh someone so said that about you, you know what, if it really doesn't have a matter, like whoever they're probably telling you about doesn't even know you, which is something I never remember we talked a lot about through high school was like, you know

the opinions that matter are that of God, and that is the opinion of you. And those who really know and love you. Everybody else's opinion honestly doesn't matter because they don't know you. They don't know your heart. They don't know who you really are. Like they so it's doesn't matter. So you really need to just take all of that with a grain of salt and brush it off and just not even listen to it. That's what you need to listen to the people that love you and know you and have your best intentions at heart. And so that's not advice on all that. That's a great advice mom. My last piece of advice for this season will be this because mom said a few times about

if it's divisive, it's divisive. And I think that there's a way that we can look at the words that we choose to use in friendship and relationship and even just in general and everyday conversation. You know, the Bible talks about how our tongue, it holds the power of life and death. So when we speak, we're either speaking life or we're either speaking really death. Like we're speaking something that's gonna move forward

or we're speaking something that's gonna pull down. And I think in the same way, whenever you speak, you either speak towards unity or you speak division. And I think that when you speak towards division, what that looks like is it looks like speaking from a place of offense, speaking from a place of jealousy, speaking from a place of a competitive spirit. And all of those things that leads to division, that brings forth divisive language. I think when you speak to a place of unity, you speak

towards love, you speak towards truth and with kindness and with grace and humility. And I think that before you speak, this is something I've been challenging myself with. God is what I'm about to say. Will it bring forth unity or will it bring forth division? And if it has any divisive tone, get it out on my life. And I have found that literally the Holy Spirit will be like, no. If it's going to come off negative or if it would separate or if it was coming from a place inside of me that wasn't pure.

But when there's something to speak towards unity, it is amazing how your words come out. And it's amazing how it breathes peace into relationship it brings forth joy It continues to bond you and a disbond of true love and it's truthful It's vulnerable, but it's but it's life-giving and so that would be my last piece of advice for this season until we talk next time. So as you go forth, make sure that you're being a person that's speaking towards the unity in the world and not speaking towards more of the division. Because it's so, so, so important that we all unite on a common love.

And honestly, we're going to be talking about unity a lot through messages that I'm speaking and through hopefully new books that I'm writing and stuff like that. And so I want to go ahead and get you praying in that direction of thinking towards the unity and know that we're all united by the same blood of Jesus. Whether you believe it or not, Jesus died for you and his blood covers all and literally connects us all through the power of love. And that's so powerful. And if anything, I'm gonna say, whoa, that's good. Well thanks mom over all your advice I love you so much. No love you you're making me cry over here I'm so proud of you. Oh that was awesome. So good. I really glad that was inspiring. Love you guys. Love you guys. So proud of you. Thanks Mom. This is great.

Can't wait to hear all the podcasts. Thanks. Bye. Bye, guys. Bye, baby. Thanks so much for listening to the WoW That's Good Podcast. We got a lot of good nuggets today. Don't forget to follow me on all the social media platforms of mine.

Instagram, I'm at legit Sadie Rob, Twitter, Sadie Rob, and follow our live original Instagram. Also, I'm Sadie Robertson on Facebook. Head over to live original.com and subscribe to this podcast, and while you're there, you can see the tour dates that I'm coming to a city near you. Don't forget, please leave comments in the iTunes section and leave reviews. This podcast is produced by Steve Strauss and Peter Hartzel, so a huge shout out to them, and thank you to my L.O. team. You guys are the best. We love y'all and we appreciate you listening. I'll see y'all soon! you